


smiles (and other learning curves)

by thir13enth



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, also featuring a sly and sneaky lance, and shiro sharing all the dirty human secrets, featuring that trope that i love about allura learning about humans, fluff and other weird things, yay for weird titles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7567150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thir13enth/pseuds/thir13enth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s plenty of things to learn about humans—well, about Shiro, in particular</p>
            </blockquote>





	smiles (and other learning curves)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wordslinger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordslinger/gifts).



> i decided that i wanted to write happy things at least once this week. 
> 
> this piece is a mess though, i warn. so any weirdness that occurs in this story, i blame on Drake, who i had playing on repeat while writing this.
> 
> for [wordslinger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordslinger) ([lady-brandish](lady-brandish.tumblr.com) on tumblr), who i’ve successfully dragged into my trash. i saved a seat for you in voltron hell, love. come sit hither abreast me.

The first thing Allura notices about him is that his ears are unsightly.

Rather than neat and peaked tips, the cartilage of his ears is deformed—as if melted down and squashed down to a sad frown like last night’s green goop leftover dinner.

“Your ears,” she blurts out loud, before she suddenly stretches out a finger for the Black Paladin’s left ear.

The Earthling ducks away from her touch, covering his ear, and looking back at her curiously. “Y-Yes, Princess?” he asks her, perhaps thinking that the verbalization of her concern about his ears would be better than her getting into his space.

“I was just intrigued that your ears are…curved,” she admits, choosing her words carefully so as to not offend the Paladin on just his first day appointed as a Defender.

Understanding flashes through Shiro’s eyes, and he laughs off the situation as best as he can, uncupping his left ear and letting his protective hand fall back to his side. “Well,” he replies. “Your ears are quite strange to me, too. They’re pointy.”

Allura blinks several times. “As they _should_ be,” she returns, maybe a little defensive. “Why are _your_ ears so unshapely?”

A smile cracks over his lips. She can’t tell what he’s thinking, but she can tell that he seems amused at her irritation. “I suppose that’s because I’m a human, and human ears are unshapely,” he explains.

She doesn’t miss a beat. “I couldn’t agree more,” she tells him, folding her arms over her chest.

His grin grows wider, and she still isn’t sure what he finds so funny—and she discovers that if there’s anything more that she needs to learn about humans, it’s how to read their smiles.

.

.

Maybe she’s been staring a little too long at Shiro’s eyes, but he’s suddenly stopped eating with gusto—one that he’s developed after becoming accustomed to after a month of eating fine Altean entrees and delicacies—and puts down his spoon gently back into the half-eaten platter in front of him.

“…Allura?” he calls out to her, waving his hand up and down over his face. “You okay?”

The four other Paladins suddenly realize the source of the awkwardness looming over the dinner table and look in her direction for an explanation.

“I’m absolutely splendid,” she responds sharply. She forgets if that’s the proper “slang” way to respond to such a question.

“Something wrong?”

“No. Why?”

“You’ve been staring at my face for the past minute.”

“Your eyes, actually,” she corrects.

Shiro looks surprised. “What?” he asks, as if he didn’t hear her the first time.

“I’ve been staring at your eyes for the past minute,” she clarifies. “Actually, if you count the last several ticks, then I’ve been starting for the past two minutes.”

“…uh” is the most that she got out of him, so she doesn’t bother repeating herself again, standing up from her chair and then walking over to him in long strides. She bends over to bring her face down to his height. He stutters some words and nervousness, leaning backwards and away from her encroaching self, but she reaches for his head with both hands and brings his face towards her.

“Allura, you’re a little too close—“ he starts but then she shushes him, looking intently into his eyes and all the surrounding skin around them.

“Huh,” she says, after affirming that Shiro did not have any sort of marking under or anywhere around his eyes—not even those of the same shade of his tan skin. “I suppose you don’t have any wings under your eyes after all.”

“Mmm, no,” he concurs, stiffly. His eyes are very wide and he looks off to the side, raising his hands up to her wrists to coax her hands off his face.

“Wingless,” she concludes.

He gives her a shy smile. “You could just ask me next time,” he suggests, pulling her hands down from his face and putting her hands back in her space before he withdraws his own hands back to his lap.

Allura thinks for a moment. She thinks that maybe Shiro doesn’t like it when her hands move faster than her words. “I’ll do that next time then,” she says, taking his offer. “There’s plenty that I want to find out about the human body, and I’m sure you can teach me all about it.”

Lance snorts from behind her. “Oh, I’m sure Shiro can _teach_ you alright—“

“ _Lance_ ,” Shiro warns, practically a growl.

Keith looks like he’s stifling laughter. Pidge’s eyebrows raise.

Allura doesn’t understand even half of the subtext of what’s going on, nor can she read his strained smile, but from the looks of Shiro’s deathly glare, she decides maybe she doesn’t want to know.

.

.

“Are there humans with white hair?” she suddenly asks Shiro, one quiet evening in the pilot pit of the castle-ship.

“Uh…” he answers, not having expected the question. His eyes look upward to the small tuft of white hair just above his forehead.

“Besides you,” she interrupts before he points out that he has white hair himself. “Someone like me—with a full head of white hair.”

“Yeah,” he replies. “There are people with white hair.”

“Ah!” she exclaims excitedly. “And here all this time, I thought that maybe white hair is something that just happens among Alteans.”

He puts his hand on his chin for a moment. “Well…” he slowly clarifies. “It’s not exactly normal. Humans aren’t just born with white hair off the bat, usually.”

She furrows her eyebrows. “What do you mean? Why do you have white hair then?”

He shrugs and gives her a gentle smile. “Stress—or something of that sort,” he answers.

“Stress,” she repeats softly, before letting the moment go silent for a couple seconds. “So something awful must happen to you before your hair turns white.”

Shiro looks off to the side.

She thinks maybe she shouldn’t have asked this question. But then he turns the subject back around.

“Well, actually,” he continues, “it’s more like that white isn’t typically a color you see on someone…younger.”

She thinks for just a little bit, wondering why the Black Paladin is hesitant with his words, when it clicks.

“Are you telling me that if I was on Earth, people would think me aged?”

He holds his breath for a moment before replying sheepishly. “Yeah,” he admits to her.

“And with how long my hair is, I must look very aged, huh?” she asks, with a wry smile, leaning into him.

He leans closer. “Oh yes, _very_ aged. Like fine wine.”

“Ah,” she says. “I suppose technically I am 640 million ticks old after all.”

Shiro raises his eyebrow—as if he’s doing some mental calculations to convert ticks to years—but he lets the numbers go, shrugging off the curious concept of measure lives in such small units.

“Perhaps that seems old to humans,” she continues softly. She sighs.

“Oh, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not beautiful,” he adds quickly, with concern. “Beauty and age are completely different things.”

Allura thinks for another moment. She leans in even closer to him. “Are you telling me that you think I’m beautiful?”

Shiro presses his lips together for a moment, studying her for a tick, before he admits, “Yes.”

She feels her heart stir—and she could perhaps have discovered a little something about her feelings if she hadn’t discovered something else instead—

“Oh,” she remarks. “I didn’t realize that humans can change colors.” She gestures toward Shiro’s dusty pink cheeks. “You know, we Alteans can change our appearances at will, too.”

Shiro blinks a couple times. “Yes,” he tells her, with the most curious expression on his face. “Humans can indeed change colors at times—“

“I _knew_ I’d find something in common between Earthlings and Alteans,” she says.

“—although I wouldn’t say it’s at our will.”

She tilts her head. “Oh? What do you mean?”

He gives her a smile she can’t make out. “I’ll explain another time,” he promises her.

“Okay then,” she says, agreeing to wait.

She decides she wants to figure out his smiles in the meantime.

**Author's Note:**

> legit this fic was going one way and then it completely turned around on itself. i don't know what happened. it's a mess. 
> 
> i still blame Drake.


End file.
